Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 08 February 2010 – 3 FISH






I fished a difficult 3 3/4 hour exploratory trip today to see if I could put something together for a booking this coming Thursday. I fished Belton because, due to its size, there remains some relatively clear water in areas where fish should be this time of year. Unfortunately, most of the seasonal fish-holding water on Stillhouse is now very dirty, to the point of appearing opaque.

Fish were hard to come by today on newly flooded Belton Lake. That is a half-submerged outhouse and swim area sign in the background.

As the water crested today, it stopped just short of the asphalt at the top of the concrete boat ramp. That’s the now useless courtesy dock floating in the background.

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp: 45F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~52.6-53.1F

Wind: Winds were light and variable until 10, then blew SW at ~9 thereafter.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear until the wind shift, then went fair and transitioned to 30% cloudy.

There was no helpful bird activity today. Sonar revealed areas with significant bait holding very high up in the water column in two distinct bands — one at 25-31 feet and another at 40-44 feet. The only fish I found today were very scattered and very hesistant white bass appearing individually on sonar. In three areas, Area 156, Area 502, and just west of Area 154 there were enough individual fish in close enough proximity to cause me to stop and attempt a sniping approach with an ice jig.

Nearly 4 hours of effort yielded 3 fish including 2 keeper white bass and a short white bass, with two other strikes missed, both of which I am certain were white bass or juvenile hybrid, as well.

The water is cold, off colored at best (and muddy in many places on Belton, too) and has risen ~10 feet in a very short time span. It’s just going to take some time and some dry weather to settle back into a status quo before we can enjoy success with any regularity again.

TALLY = 3 FISH, all caught and released

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